Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)

Add to this third level education fee charges and more than halving grants for most third level students in Sligo-Leitrim because of the proximity changes.

Outside of the budget entirely, the HSE is now considering the wholesale closure of public nursing homes with the threat of moving elderly, vulnerable people to private facilities many miles from their home areas. It is doing so because the Government refuses to tax the wealthy and refuses to make financial speculators carry some responsibility for their reckless gambles. The Government continues to operate under the illusion that our economy can recover although we take ever more money from the pockets of the very people who sustain it locally and nationally. In this process, Fine Gael deserves some recognition for arranging very cleverly for a Labour Party Minister to introduce swinging cuts in the Dáil on Monday of last week. He sat down to applause from Fine Gael backbenchers while the Labour backbenchers sat ashen-faced. Far be it from me to offer any advice to Labour Party Members, but I believe they really should ascertain the intentions and the actions of their new best friends in Fine Gael.

In agriculture, budget 2012 provides for a 10% reduction in respect of REPS, no commitment to opening the AEOS scheme in 2012 and restrictive changes to disadvantaged area payments. Farmers in disadvantaged areas will probably end up subsidising those in more advantaged areas just as the truly disadvantaged will be sacrificed to support the better-off generally throughout the State.

At the weekend I listened as Government parties' representatives described budget 2012 on local radio as not being too bad and they stated the bad bits had to be introduced because the previous Government made them do so. I felt for these spokespersons because they are decent people. However, they were saying to their own community that the budget will not be too bad for them, yet they knew as they said it that, this year and in the following years, decisions will be made that will have a devastating effect not only on rural areas but on the people of this nation.

I spoke with local people extensively over the weekend. People in Sligo-Leitrim are normally fairly laid back, a bit like myself, but they are now very angry. They want truth, leadership and change but they got none of these in this disgraceful budget.

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